Lady Dawgs chase Cougars out of house

The Ionia girls basketball team had four players finish with double-digit scoring totals Tuesday night in a 59-34 win over Lansing Catholic.

The win is the third-straight for the Bulldogs after suffering a two-point loss on the road to No. 5 Eaton Rapids.

Ionia's ball movement and passing was effective Tuesday night, leading to a few large runs and balances scoring. After the Cougars scored their first basket of the game to tie it at 2-2, the Lady Dawgs finished the first quarter with a 17-2 run to take a 19-4 lead.

With a 32-16 lead at the half, Ionia again got its offense going with transition baskets and solid passing, outscoring Lansing Catholic 19-9 in the third quarter. Heading into the fourth, the Bulldogs held a 51-25 advantage.

After his squad's win over Owosso on Friday night, Ionia coach Andy Barr said he saw a few good individual efforts, but his players did not play well as a unit. On Tuesday, he was much happy with his players performance.

""I think all around we played a good team game tonight," he said. "We passed the ball well and we had a lot of kids scoring.

"We had a lot of good ball movement and a lot of kids contributing in a lot of ways. That makes the game much more enjoyable and much more fun."

"We need to have a little more balanced scoring (like tonight) and the kids getting after it and sharing the ball," Barr said. "The other night we didn't do as good a job of that.

"Tonight you saw a little of what we can do as a team."

Erika Ketchum pulled down eight rebounds, while Swartz and Riccius grabbed seven each. Bovee nabbed four steals and Swartz dished out five assists as well.

Ionia (7-4) will play host to DeWitt on Friday as both teams begin the second half of Capital Area Activities Conference Red play.

"After last Friday's performance we wanted to right the ship, and we did that," Barr said. "Now we need to get focused and ready for DeWitt. We've got them in our gym and we played them pretty tough over there, so hopefully we can get a win here at home."